Garfield has received consistent critical praise for the effective settings of his books. In Smith he depicts eighteenthcentury London with an eye for accuracy and atmosphere, rendering in vivid detail the sights, smells, and sounds of The Red Lion Tavern, where Smith lives with his two sisters; the murky back streets, where he drifts and dodges like "a sooty spirit"; and the bitter, snowy reaches of Finchley Common, where he thwarts a coach robbery and saves the life of Mr. Mansfield.